“MAGIC FLUTE:” AN ASCENSION STORY WRITTEN OVER TWO CENTURIES AGO

“MAGIC FLUTE:” AN ASCENSION STORY WRITTEN OVER TWO CENTURIES AGO

Mozart makes another appearance in my life, this time through “Magic Flute”

About three weeks ago, I wrote the following passage about Mozart’s music and its effect on my current lifetime (see HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM ASCENDING? – Sep 21, 2015):

So now I still find myself playing my Steinway every day, but just to warm up my fingers. To create new music or new orchestral arrangements, however, I use the Clavinova. The piano is now just another instrument. No more, no less.

Furthermore, whereas Mozart was once my substitute for playing scales, now he has become my favorite composer. Forget his piano pieces. I am talking about his symphonies and flute, harp and clarinet concertos, for example. They are absolutely DIVINE. And I play them every day.

Mozart’s is the alchemical (transformational) form of music. Two and a quarter centuries ago, he was the herald of this planet’s ascension which is now taking place. Of course, nobody knew that at the time, Mozart included. He just followed his intuition and inspiration.

The last passage was affirmed in spades as Elizabeth and I attended Mozart’s masterpiece opera, “Magic Flute,” in Honolulu this weekend (Oct 11, 2015). I cried. I felt were ascending myself during performance by the Hawaii Opera Theater. The libretto words penetrated the depths of my soul as did the music.

Such as these…

ACT 1

ATTENDANTS:If virtue and righteousnesspave the Great Path with honor,then earth will be a paradiseand mortals resemble gods.

PAPAGENO: If only I were a mouse,
how I’d hide myself –
if only I were tiny as a snail,
I’d creep into my house! –
My child, what shall we say? –

PAMINA: The truth – the truth, even though it be a crime! –(A procession of attendants; Sarastro enters last
in a triumphal chariot drawn by six lions.)

ACT 2

No.18: Chorus of Priests

CHORUS
O Isis and Osiris! What delight!The dark night retreats from the light of the sun! –
Soon will the noble youth experience a new life,
soon will he be wholly dedicated to our Order.
His spirit is bold, his heart is pure,
soon will he be worthy of us.(Tamino is brought in, and Sarastro commends him
on his steadfastness. Pamina too is led in and
unveiled, but then commanded to bid Tamino a last
farewell.)

ARMED MEN(Their melody is that of the choral tune `Ach Gott,
vom Himmel sieh’ darein’, set to Luther’s versification
of the 12th Psalm. Luther’s poem was the basis
for the text for Bach’s Cantata BWV2.)
He who travels these laborious paths will be
purified by fire, water, air and earth.If he overcomes his fear of death, he willraise himself from earth, soar heavenwards!in the light of this higher level he candedicate himself wholly to Isis’s mysteries.

During the intermission, I told Elizabeth, “there is a much deeper message encrypted in this opera, once you look beyond the veneer of comedy.”

Yet most the Honolulu audience laughed, cheered and applauded the comic scenes of this opera. Of which there were many. But not all. Elizabeth told me that, while she was waiting in line for the ladies’ restroom, she overheard someone behind her saying the same thing, “there is a deeper message in this opera.”

So “Magic Flute” is an opera for the masses as well as for the enlightened. Lest we forget, Mozart wrote this masterpiece during the Age of Enlightenment, right after the French Revolution, and before he himself ascended. Mozart passed just nine weeks after the premiere of the “Magic Flute” in Vienna on Sep 30, 1791.

So the “Magic Flute” was the great composer’s last hurrah before he left the planet to guide others. Whether or not he was aware that he was writing about the ascension of Blue Star Earth which was to start in 2012 or not, I know not. But I do know that Mozart did it anyway more than two centuries before it was to begin, inspired by his own Spirit guides and teachers.

And now, here’s an excerpt from one of the many analytical piece I have found that deals with “Magic Flute’s” spiritual and philosophical messages:

DEEPER MESSAGES ENCRYPTED IN “MAGIC FLUTE”

In understanding Flute it’s important to understand something about Freemasonry. Mozart became a Mason in 1784 – Schikaneder and Giesecke were also Freemasons. The Masons of Vienna saw themselves as a philosophical group persecuted by the Habsburgs and the Catholic Church. Indeed, the Pope had issued two edicts decrying Freemasonry.

Certain elements of The Magic Flute find Egyptian heritage. The gods Isis and Osiris are invoked. Egyptian images and architecture appear. This is a magic land to which Masonry traced some of its origins. Likewise, ancient Persia was viewed as a source of Freemasonry. The character Sarastro’s name is certainly derived from the ancient Persian prophet Zoroaster.

Entire books have been written about the Masonic symbolism contained in The Magic Flute. Here are but a handful of examples.

The number three held significance in Masonry. (ALTZAR: And not just in masonry; in Christianity, too).

Thus, we find three strongly emphasized chords in the overture, three Ladies in the service of the Queen of the Night, three Boys who lead Tamino and Papageno on their quest, in the original cast three slaves and three priests, three temples, three knocks on the doors of the temple, and three flats in the key signature of E flat, the home key of the opera. Other numbers are also significant in Masonry.

For instance, the 77 strokes of the bastinado which Monostatos is to receive at the end of the First Act hearken to the idea that in Masonry the number 7 represents wisdom. The serpent which chases Tamino, the padlock used to punish Papageno for telling a lie, the portrait of Pamina, the flute and bells, the gender of some of the characters, the references to air, earth, fire, and water, the allusions to darkness and the sun, the colors of certain costumes – all these things can be tied to Masonic iconography.

But the opera was not written for a closed circle of the initiated. It was written for a suburban theater, a popular, not a highbrow theater. One of the amazing things about Flute is that it works on so many different levels, and may either be enjoyed simply for its music and charm, or may be debated and discussed at length as a meaningful treatise on human existence. Or both.

There are not many place in the world where you can see the crown sprawled on the lawn outside the opera theater during the intermission. Honolulu is one of them. Here are some photos I took during the intermission…